Insulation material



J. A. MALCOLM INSULATION MATERIAL Filed July 15, 1936 INVENTOR. (/A/VfJ A. M41 com ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 2, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,097,595 7 INSULATION MATERIAL James A. Malcolm, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Daniel C, Luse, Chicago, Ill.

Application July 15, 1936, Serial No. 90,714

.10 vide an insulation material which may be conveniently and economically produced from materials and by means of facilities ordinarily avail-.

, able, which may be readily fabricated into an easily handled sheet of appropriate thickness ca- 15 pable of being readily cut and easily and conveniently assembled with the structure to which it is applied. Along with these advantages, the insulation possesses a high degree of efliciency.

It is so constituted that within the structure 20 thereof there are literally myriads of tiny celllike dead air spaces. These spaces are formed within and between the closely interlaced or felted fibers and the fibers themselves, although relatively short in length and well adapted for inter- 25 lacing, are soft and of very slight diameter. These qualities of the fibers plus the intimate manner in which they are interlaced or interwoven provide a pad or sheet-like structure which, while flexible and -susceptible of readily cutting 30 preserves its structural integrity not only while- 35, fabrics such as old clothing, bed blankets, carpets, and the like are thoroughly defibered and the fibers are then needled into the pad-like structure referred to with or without the hereinafter mentioned binder. This' pad-like struc- 40 ture is then cut into strips or sheets of appropriate size and is ready for use. If desired, the pad-like structure may be needled to a sheetof burlap or may have sheets of paper cemented or needled thereto.

5 The principal feature of the invention .is believed to reside in constituting the insulation material of wool shoddy and of inter-relating the fibers of this shoddy by needling as distinguished from felting in the strict technical sense 50 of such expression.

'Ihe binder referred to comprises animal hair, suchascattlehairorhorsehair. Thishairis usually longer than'the relatively short wool fibers employed for the pad and when mixed with the 5woolflbersmacertainamount andneedled thereto in the production of the pad provides an eifective binder for the short wool fibers without sacrificing the soft, fluify nature of the pad as produced by the wool fibers.

Other objects and advantages reside in certain 5 novel features of the construction, arrangement and combination of parts which will be hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claim, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view showing one manner of incorporating insulation material embodying my invention in a building structure;

Fig. 2 is a, perspective view showing a portion of the sheet of insulation material;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but illustrating the pad of insulating material needled to a piece of burlap; and

Fig.4'is a fragmentary view on an extremely large scale indicating diagrammatically the manner in which the fibers are interlaced or interconnectedin the pad structure.

Referring to the drawing, and more especially to Fig. 2, the numeral I designates a pad or sheet of insulating material embodying my invention. As therein indicated, the insulation material is made up of innumerable fibers which are produced by breaking down discarded wool fabrics into wool fibers. These fibers, are relatively short and very thin. They are soft and flexible. Furthermore, they. are hollow. and thus provide minute air cells. Such fibers are thoroughly needled together until they are interwoven or interlaced into a sheet or pad structure capable of preserving its form although flexible and susceptible of being readily out. As illustrated in Fig. 3, such a pad may also be needled to apiece of burlap designated at 3 to back up the pad. Inlieu of 40 burlap, a sheet of paper may be substituted and may be needled to the pad or cemented thereto. The applied sheet may be incorporated in the pad adjacent one face thereof, as shown in Fig. 3, or said sheet may be applied to forma face of the fabricated pad.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, these pads I may be incorporated in the walls of a building designated, at 4 and held in place in any suitable manner. Due to the characteristics of the fiber, approxi- ,mately ten times as many wool fibers are required to make the same amount of material as could befabricated from cattle hair and yet the resulting product is Ies expensive forthe reason that the cost of the old wool fabrics and the cost of constructing applicant's insulation material therefrom is much less. A marked increase in insulating efficiency is had. Actual test has shown that with the insulation of the present invention the loss of heat per hour amounts to 0.246 B. t. u. The most favorable results obtained with prior types of insulation showed a loss of heat per hour of 0.256 B. t. u.

It is to be understood that the invention may also be embodied in various types of well-known insulation fabric structures. For example, equal portions or layers of the wool fibers may be needled to an intermediate stay. Also, the socalled water-proof felt may be cemented to one or both sides of the wool insulation fabric either with or without a. fabric stay. This so-called water-proof felt is what is commonly known as asphalt roofing felt or asphalt water-proof paper. The essential feature in all such variations is the wool fibers needled together into compact sheet-like form and having the essential characteristics of innumerable dead air cells within and between the Wool fibers.

By the use of wool shoddy or reclaimed wool fibers, the production costs of the pad are considerably reduced for the reason that there is a greater source of supply'of these fibers than cattle hair which has heretofore been generally used for this type of material. The weight factor of the pad is also less because the relatively short fibers employed produce a relatively soft fiufiy pad which is not as dense and compact as the felted cattle hair construction. Moreover, the insulating factor of the pad against heat and cold is a superior one because of the immeasurably greater number of dead air cells provided in the pad by reason of the large number of relatively short fibers employed.

Reclaimed wool fibers are much too short for weaving or felting. These fibersrange in length from an inch and one-quarter to an inch and onehalf. Due to these short lengths, a relatively light, soft fiuffy pad is produced and a material is used which would otherwise: have no available market. The soft, fiuify nature of the pad pro-- vides the innumerable dead air cells which give the pad its effective insulating characteristics against heat and cold. An actual test of the pad shows that it can effectively withstand 300 F. without any,trace of charring or carbonizing. The short fibers produce a soft, fiuffy pad regardless of the thickness of the pad produced. In

actual practice pads are produced ranging in thickness from one-half inch to two inches.

In Fig. 4 an attempt has been made to show more or less diagrammatically the manner in which the fibers interlace or interconnect in the pad structure. The fibers are marked 5, 5 and the interlaced or interconnected relation between them is brought about by intermixing and needling them in the production of the pad. The needling is preferably performed over substantially the entire area of the pad, extending through the pad from, the top to the bottom, as illustrated at 6, 6 in Figs. 2 and 3. The pad may be needled in regularly spaced relation along the' length of the pad, the needling being performed in rows crosswise of the pad as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3. The woven fabric stay sheet in Fig. 3 is shown incorporated in the pad structure adjacent one of its outer surfaces. As before stated the stay sheet may be secured directly to one or both of the outer surfaces of the pad instead of being incorporated in the pad structure asindicated in Fig. 3. The needling extends through the stay sheet as shown.

While the pad herein disclosed may be constituted wholly of wool fibers, yet it may be desirable for some purposes to incorporate a binder in the 'pad for the wool fibers when a slightly firmer pad is required. When a binder is employed, the pad is predominantly constituted of wool fibers which give the pad its soft, fiufiy characteristics. I find that approximately 25% of cattle or horse hair may be used as the binder without sacrificing the soft and flufiy characteristics of. the pad as produced by the relatively short, softwool fibers. This hair material is considerably longer than the wool fibers and in producing the pad the hair and the wool fibers are intermixed and needled together in the fabrication of the pad. Cattle hair in particular has a length ranging from three inches to six inches and this is considerably longer than the wool fibers'which range in length from one and one-quarter inches to one and one-half inches. By reason of the longer length of the hair material, the shorter wool fibers are effectively bound in the pad due to their interlaced or interconnected relation with the hair fibers. The effectiveness of this pad as an insulator against heat and cold is not sacrificed by the binder hair, the latter not being in suificient amount to produce an unduly firm or dense pad.

While I have shown and described several constructions in which the invention may be embodied it is to be understood that these have been selected merely for. the purpose of illustration or example and that various changes may be made as will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claim.

I claim as my invention:

An insulating material in the form of a pad adaptable for the thermal insulation of wall or like structures and composed of a homogeneous mass of relatively short length wool fibers not susceptible to weaving, said fibers being distribpad as constituted of said short length fibers effective as an insulator against heat and cold for a wall construction.

JAMES A. MALCOLM. 

